“We’ve endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years, and each time I hear the news I react not as a president but as anyone else would, as a parent,” Obama said. “And that was especially true today.”

***

What is “meaningful action”? Obama has explained this before: He wants a new assault weapons ban. My colleague Allison Benedikt is among those who wanted more from Obama, but that’s not how this works. To use two examples without conflating the scales of the tragedies: LBJ didn’t call for the Civil Rights Act on November 22, 1963, and George W. Bush didn’t ask for any military response on 9/11. Day one is when you tell people whether you’re going to pick up the cards. Showing those cards, that comes later.

***

Bloomberg’s full statement:

“With all the carnage from gun violence in our country, it’s still almost impossible to believe that a mass shooting in a kindergarten class could happen. It has come to that. Not even kindergarteners learning their A,B,Cs are safe. We heard after Columbine that it was too soon to talk about gun laws. We heard it after Virginia Tech. After Tucson and Aurora and Oak Creek. And now we are hearing it again. For every day we wait, 34 more people are murdered with guns. Today, many of them were five-year olds. President Obama rightly sent his heartfelt condolences to the families in Newtown. But the country needs him to send a bill to Congress to fix this problem. Calling for ‘meaningful action’ is not enough. We need immediate action. We have heard all the rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership – not from the White House and not from Congress. That must end today. This is a national tragedy and it demands a national response. My deepest sympathies are with the families of all those affected, and my determination to stop this madness is stronger than ever.”

***

Enough!

Enough with putting off tomorrow what we should be talking about today. Enough with being afraid to step on someone’s delicate sensibilities when it comes to the Second Amendment. Enough with elected leaders who are too cowardly to confront the National Rifle Association and their ardent supporters. Enough with moms and dads and brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and pastors and deacons who are afraid to make public the private anguish of mental illness.

The goal of this petition is to force the Obama Administration to produce legislation that limits access to guns. While a national dialogue is critical, laws are the only means in which we can reduce the number of people murdered in gun related deaths.

Powerful lobbying groups allow the ownership of guns to reach beyond the Constitution’s intended purpose of the right to bear arms. Therefore, Congress must act on what is stated law, and face the reality that access to firearms reaches beyond what the Second Amendment intends to achieve.

***

Obama has been given several sad opportunities to address gun violence. In Tucson, he spoke of “a national conversation” commencing, “not only about the motivations behind these killings, but about everything from the merits of gun safety laws to the adequacy of our mental health system.” After an attack on a Sikh temple outside Milwaukee, Obama said similar events “are happening with too much regularity for us not to do some soul-searching to examine additional ways that we can reduce violence.”

But that soul-searching did not happen in Obama’s first term. And before Friday’s shooting in Newtown, few thought Obama would devote political capital to any sort of serious push for new gun-control legislation. Though the National Rifle Association’s power has waned from its peak, Republicans remain firmly on the NRA’s side while Democrats remain deeply scarred by the gun-rights group’s success in ousting pro-gun-control legislators. It will be days before we know whether a massacre at an elementary school will be enough to force Obama and Congress to act.

***

“What’s he going to do? He’s not going to get legislation,” said Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia. “That’s obvious to anybody.”

Sabato and other experts predicted that Washington’s powerful gun lobby — and the many lawmakers from both parties who are cognizant of its influence — virtually assures the failure of any legislation aimed at curbing gun rights. At best, Sabato said, Obama could try other policy approaches in an attempt to improve public safety, such as by backing legislation that would require more metal detectors in schools and other public places…

Obama did not outline specifics or directly call on Congress to act, but many Democrats issued statements that echoed the president’s call for a policy response.

Many Democrats blame gun control for Al Gore’s 2000 presidential loss and there has been an increasing reluctance over the past decade to push the issue to the forefront of American politics. In 2006, Democrats won a majority in Congress in part by winning in conservative areas with candidates who were proudly pro-gun rights…

Democratic Congressional Committee Chairman Steve Israel of New York avoided vague references altogether. His statement was purely sympathetic and stressed that Americans should “stand together with the community of Newtown.”

***

I teach at a state university with a campus gun-free policy, and quite a few of my students have permits to carry guns. After the Virginia Tech shooting a few years ago, one of them asked me if we could move class off campus, because she felt unsafe being unarmed. I certainly would have felt perfectly safe having her carry a gun in my presence; she was, and is, a responsible adult. I feel the same way about the other law students I know who have carry permits.

Gun-free zones are premised on a lie: that murderers will follow rules, and that people like my student are a greater danger to those around them than crazed killers. That’s an insult to honest people. Sometimes, it’s a deadly one. The notion that more guns mean more crime is wrong. In fact, as gun ownership has expanded over the past decade, crime has gone down.

Fortunately, the efforts to punish “the people who didn’t do it” are getting less traction these days.

On the outskirts of the vigil I met Tom Donlin, who’d made an ad hoc candle holder out of a Starbucks cup. “I just was walking by and saw this,” he said. “I’m not actually for gun control, so I probably disagree with these people. There’s strict gun control in Norway, and that gunman killed — what, something like 80 people?” He was still listening. “We might want to look at mental health laws, not gun laws.”

At another end of the crowd, a government worker named Jennifer Purl huddled in her green coat and complimented some activists on their signs. “Yes!” she said. “Close the gun show loophole.” She rattled off some other ideas for restricting guns, without banning them, and with consideration for the mental state of gun owners. “Nobody’s talking about banning guns! Every time there’s one of these tragedies, people run out to buy guns. It’s crazy, just crazy.”

Blowback

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Obama cited Scripture to call for healing, and said “we’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.” He called the shooting a “heinous crime” against “beautiful little kids.”

I take it he’s talking about the kids killed in Mexico with the guns his administration supplied to the drug cartels. Right?

What is “meaningful action”? Obama has explained this before: He wants a new assault weapons ban

And, the AWB would have prevented this exactly how? Come to think of it, how did the AWB ban on “hunting rifles that have cosmetic changes that make them skeery-looking and are painted (racist!) black” prevented Columbine or Jonesboro?

“We’ve endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years, and each time I hear the news I react not as a president but as anyone else would, as a parent,” Obama said. “And that was especially true today.”

For once act as a President, without invoking your status as father to Sasha and Malia. Really, it’s getting sickening. We all have our personal life experiences. Some of us are parents, some aren’t.

Presents the case report of a 44-yr-old male who was diagnosed at age 16 yrs as schizophrenic and who began exhibiting violent behavior at the same age. It is concluded that the S exhibited a number of features typical of adults with autistic syndrome (i.e., clumsiness, pursuit of circumscribed and unsocial interests, and lack of a grasp of social situations), and an overview of his history supports a diagnosis of autism rather than schizophrenia. It is suggested that the association between autism and violent behavior is more common than has been recognized. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Powerful lobbying groups allow the ownership of guns to reach beyond the Constitution’s intended purpose of the right to bear arms. Therefore, Congress must act on what is stated law, and face the reality that access to firearms reaches beyond what the Second Amendment intends to achieve.

Written by one who has NO idea about the Constitution’s intended purpose or what the Second Amendment intends to achieve.

“I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”

- George Mason, co-author of the Second Amendment during Virginia’s Convention to Ratify the Constitution, 1788

“A militia, when properly formed, are in fact the people themselves …”

“And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the Press, or the rights of Conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; …”

“Firearms stand next in importance to the constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty teeth and keystone under independence … from the hour the Pilgrims landed to the present day, events, occurrences and tendencies prove that to ensure peace security and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable … the very atmosphere of firearms anywhere restrains evil interference — they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.”

- George Washington, First President of the United States

“To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.”

- Richard Henry Lee, American Statesman, 1788

“The great object is that every man be armed.” and “Everyone who is able may have a gun.”

- Patrick Henry, American Patriot

“Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?”

- Patrick Henry, American Patriot

“Those who hammer their guns into plowshares will plow for those who do not.”

- Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States

“The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that …it is their right and duty to be at all times armed; … “

“The best we can help for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.”

- Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-8

“One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.”

- Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1796. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson

“We established however some, although not all its [self-government] important principles . The constitutions of most of our States assert, that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves, in all cases to which they think themselves competent, (as in electing their functionaries executive and legislative, and deciding by a jury of themselves, in all judiciary cases in which any fact is involved,) or they may act by representatives, freely and equally chosen; that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.”

- Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824

“No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”

- Thomas Jefferson: Draft Virginia Constitution, 1776.

Gun control advocates always point to the word “militia” in the Second Amendment as proof that the Founders would support gun control laws. That contention is not supported by the historical documents. As the Founders continually acknowledged, A MILITIA IS THE WHOLE OF THE PEOPLE. In fact, in the Second MILITIA Act of 1792, ALL able-bodied, white men over the age of 18 were required to possess a gun.

When the Dems want to get to the bottom of Fast and Furious is when I will begin to believe they are really serious about any gun issues.

When Dems want to investigate why our Benghazi security teams were not armed and their rescuers were told to stand down, and no back up arrived even after the dead heroes had “painted” the nest of the bad guys, then I will believe the Dems are serious about guns.

Also, note that Drudge has a link to a Chinese mass murder in a school where some sick F*** killed 20 kids with a knife.

I have avoided the news and all talk shows today. I just can’t handle any more of these evil actions where innocent kids are needlessly murdered by some sick F*** and the Dems want to then turn it into a “get the guns” discussion.

“we’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.” He called the shooting a “heinous crime” against “beautiful little kids.”

Says the man who has the most vile and extreme positions on abortion of any politician in the nation.

GTH, you hypocrite. Don’t preach to me of crimes against children. Unlike some of your sycophants, you are not my god.

And spare me the lectures on gun control, too. If even one adult had been legally packing in that school, the death toll would have been far, far less.

We can’t prevent people from becoming crazy (and you progressives refuse to institutionalize them to protect not only society, but the ill as well) but when they go off their nut at least let us defend ourselves.

Fortunately, the efforts to punish “the people who didn’t do it” are getting less traction these days.

The Left is only upset about “collective punishment” when Hamas starts firing rockets into Israel. It would have no problem banning and confiscating guns, if it was not political suicide and was even feasible.

The idea that the Federal government could confiscate the 200 million guns in this country when it, allegedly, is incapable of finding illegal aliens is a joke.

Gun control, however, might be the ONLY reason The Left would ever make border control a priority. If the government did ban guns, like drugs, it would have to figure out a way of preventing new guns from finding their way into the country. As we’ve seen with both drugs and illegal aliens, they haven’t had much success.

In Tucson, he spoke of “a national conversation” commencing, “not only about the motivations behind these killings, but about everything from the merits of gun safety laws to the adequacy of our mental health system.”

In Tuscon, Barky held an insane pep rally in the wake of the shooting to give away “Together We Thrive” t-shirts and lead a cheering crowd who had no concept of how demented and twisted they appeared to normal, sane people.

Barky is a ghoul, as are all who support him.

Of course, he followed that up with arming Mexican cartels in Fast and Furious, trying to create more gun violence to blame on guns to un-Constitutionally stomp on our rights. He should have been impeached, tossed, tried and jailed for that. He still should be.

The anti-gun zealots like libfree, lostinmotherland, use bogus lies and weasel words to try and backdoor what they really want, and that’s to ban guns completely. Especially in the face of the fact that CT already has the toughest gun laws in the country. Including an assault weapons ban, gun registry, a CAP on how much ammo some one could buy in a year, and even taxes on ammo.

So when a liberal says that they only want “reasonable gun laws” what they REALLY mean is LET’s ban all guns.

The fight over guns is irrelevant. We as a people are inherently violent and murderous. Anyone seeking to lessen their chances of being caught in the crossfire by way of policy is wasting their energy trying in any way to change that. What else can possibly explain our unique proclivity for murder among our peers?

The fight over guns is irrelevant. We as a people are inherently violent and murderous. Anyone seeking to lessen their chances of being caught in the crossfire by way of policy is wasting their energy trying in any way to change that. What else can possibly explain our unique proclivity for murder among our peers?

So when do we get a list of all the drugs this shooter has been on and off of the last few years? How many drugs was he on that had side effects of “suicidal thoughts” just curious. It seems to me there may be something ‘in the water’ if you catch my meaning.

I REPEAT the goal OF THE LEFT is the banning of all guns except in the hands of the government. Everything else is an utter lie.

The “discussion” that is sought is for all the gun loving wingnuts to prostrate themselves, admit their sins and atone for ever ever ever believing that the unwashed masses should have guns in the first place.

Gun control advocates always point to the word “militia” in the Second Amendment as proof that the Founders would support gun control laws. That contention is not supported by the historical documents. As the Founders continually acknowledged, A MILITIA IS THE WHOLE OF THE PEOPLE. In fact, in the Second MILITIA Act of 1792, ALL able-bodied, white men over the age of 18 were required to possess a gun.

Resist We Much on December 14, 2012 at 8:58 PM

The Second Amendment wasn’t written to protect us from individuals who decide to go on rampages, or so that we can have a good hunting rifle – although those are very nice side benefits.

The Second Amendment was written to protect the citizenry against a tyrannical state – which is exactly and precisely what Obama et al are, tyrants.

As tragic as this senseless loss of life is what would be worse would be if it lead to the collapse of the Second Amendment, leading to the final light going out on the American Republic.

And do not think for one split second that Obama and his minions aren’t scheming to make the most of this crisis.

Never, ever forget that Obama is the destroyer, the Anti-Madison that has come to take our Constitution away from us – a traitor in every sense of the word.

I REPEAT the goal OF THE LEFT is the banning of all guns except in the hands of the government. Everything else is an utter lie.

The “discussion” that is sought is for all the gun loving wingnuts to prostrate themselves, admit their sins and atone for ever ever ever believing that the unwashed masses should have guns in the first place.

Raquel Pinkbullet on December 14, 2012 at 9:15 PM

Yep. As if that would bring an end to murders. Cain slew Abel and he didn’t have a gun available to do the deed.

“The best we can help for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.”

- Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers at 184-8

“Properly armed” meaning having access to a semi-automatic rifle that holds 30 rounds a clip, right?

“One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.”

- Thomas Jefferson to George Washington, 1796. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson

I’m certain every gun owner wished they had been at that elementary school at the exact moment the gunman opened fire. Meanwhile, there have been seven people so far this year who were less than eager to wait for an opportunity to use their guns.

If only one or two of the teachers or admins in that school had been carrying today, legally or illegally (likely the latter, given CT’s draconian gun control laws), there would’ve been a number of families with their little ones in their arms tonight. That’s the kind of gun control that, to me, is the real tragedy.

Gun control advocates always point to the word “militia” in the Second Amendment as proof that the Founders would support gun control laws. That contention is not supported by the historical documents. As the Founders continually acknowledged, A MILITIA IS THE WHOLE OF THE PEOPLE. In fact, in the Second MILITIA Act of 1792, ALL able-bodied, white men over the age of 18 were required to possess a gun.

Resist We Much on December 14, 2012 at 8:58 PM

Besides, the wording of the 2nd amendment is clear,

“the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The right is OF THE PEOPLE, no matter what the preamble to this amendment says about a militia. The militia part is nothing but a partial justificiation of this right OF THE PEOPLE. Of course, leftists are demented and warp English every chance they get so this means nothing to them.

Per Capita America’s murder rate is microscopic compared to Mexico, or South Africa or Columbia or Brazil, or Bulgaria or Russia. Again a lot of the murders are committed by gangsters/drug dealers. Killings like today are not common. But there is evil in this world, and that evil is due to the deteriorating morality of Americans.

The whole world seems on edge. Trigger-happy. Ticked off. We hear threats of chemical weapons and nuclear bombs. Are we one button-push away from annihilation?

Your world seems a bit darker this Christmas. But you were born in the dark, right? You came at night. The shepherds were nightshift workers. The Wise Men followed a star. Your first cries were heard in the shadows. To see your face, Mary and Joseph needed a candle flame. It was dark. Dark with Herod’s jealousy. Dark with Roman oppression. Dark with poverty. Dark with violence.

Herod went on a rampage, killing babies. Joseph took you and your mom into Egypt. You were an immigrant before you were a Nazarene.

Oh, Lord Jesus, you entered the dark world of your day. Won’t you enter ours? We are weary of bloodshed. We, like the wise men, are looking for a star. We, like the shepherds, are kneeling at a manger.

Nothing is off limits in furthering the progressive agenda. They will dance on the graves of these poor little kids while they sing their mantra of “gun control.”

But, it is not gun control they want, it is the complete elimination of all firearms they desire. No, they won’t go for the whole ball of wax right off the bat; that is not the progressive way since they know it would never happen.

They will ease us into it one tragedy at a time until we are unarmed and unable to stop the total control they truly desire.

Aren’t you Canadian? Why are you so worried about our gun laws?? And are you AWARE that CT has the toughest gun laws in the whole country. Banning guns like libtards like you fantasize about would only take the guns out of the hands of the law abiding, the criminals would NEVER turn in their guns, so in essence the only people with guns will be the criminals.

Right, none of them are developed, western economies. We’re talking places where the rule of law means much less than it does here. What about those places where the traditions are more similar? What about Europe, Japan, or Australia?

Why is it that when we look at societies most like our own, Americans are vastly more likely to kill?

Do you really feel that we should have the same number of murders as nations ravaged by warring militias or post-soviet crumbling empires? Are those nations really our peers?

The fight over guns is irrelevant. We as a people are inherently violent and murderous. Anyone seeking to lessen their chances of being caught in the crossfire by way of policy is wasting their energy trying in any way to change that. What else can possibly explain our unique proclivity for murder among our peers?

Also, note that Drudge has a link to a Chinese mass murder in a school where some sick F*** killed 20 kids with a knife.

karenhasfreedom on December 14, 2012 at 9:02 PM

That’s incorrect. All of the children in that incident survived.

SnarkVader on December 14, 2012 at 9:06 PM

As I said in my post above, I have AVOIDED the news and talk radio today because of this mass murder. I did see the headline link on Drudge where some sick F*** attacked 20 chinese kids in China with a knife. I didn’t link to read the article, and made the assumptions that those kids were killed, too. However, the point being, some sick F*** intended to do harm to some innocent kids and he found a way to do it with a weapon at hand. I do wonder how he managed to do that much harm to that many kids without being stopped quickly, but again, I refuse to click on the link because I am on a personal strike to avoid this tragedy today.

As it is, my tv will be on the lifetime channel for their christmas movies all weekend to avoid this story.

The fight over guns is irrelevant. We as a people are inherently violent and murderous. Anyone seeking to lessen their chances of being caught in the crossfire by way of policy is wasting their energy trying in any way to change that. What else can possibly explain our unique proclivity for murder among our peers?

Hitler was an Austrian who killed German, Polish, and Russian Jews.
Stalin was a Georgian who killed Russians and Ukrainians.

Americans kill other Americans because of guns or something. And conservatives. And they do so in a state with some of the toughest gun laws to prove that the laws aren’t um… strong enough and it’s less likely people will shoot back. Because a guy that ignores 10 gun laws couldn’t possibly ignore 15. Also you are probably racist.

Why don’t the police departments use some of that stimulus and Homeland Security to deal with their mentally ill and homeless mentally ill instead of buying more body armor?

PattyJ on December 14, 2012 at 9:23 PM

cuz body armor is so much cooler

conservative tarheel on December 14, 2012 at 9:28 PM

Why have we, as a society, allowed the ACLU to sue the governments to close the mental hospitals and put these people on the streets over the past 4 to 5 decades? Seems to me, we can be pointing fingers in that direction, too.

I mean we, Americans. For some reason (a reason you will never offer to identify) we kill each other at a rate much higher than our peers.

ernesto on December 14, 2012 at 9:17 PM

Go look at the murder stats from the Justice Dept. You will find that “Americans” don’t kill each other at a rate higher than their peers. In fact it’s lower than most other western nations. If you include folks who call themselves “anything hyphen Americans”, then you are correct.

What else can possibly explain our unique proclivity for murder among our peers?

ernesto on December 14, 2012 at 9:12 PM

Well this crap started happening in our schools around the time the government saw to it that God was taken out and unruly students were to be treated with “understanding” rather than discipline. Think that has anything to do with it? Nah…

Yes, unique among those nations most like us: Large, developed democracies with a healthy respect for the rule of law. Sort that list by nation and then find one Western, developed nation with a rate anywhere near ours. Stop running from the truth: We Americans are a violent lot. In every other nation, a developed economy and respect for the rule of law coincides with joining the bottom of the list of intentional homicides. In every other nation except our own. Why??

I remember reading Israel had this same problem many years back. Terrorists were storming the schools and killing children and teachers.

They put a guard with an Uzi into every classroom. Stopped over night.

In my own hometown I read in the paper many years ago.. how our mail carriers were being robbed and murdered back in the 30′s. The mail carriers started carrying Tommy guns and were escorted by a guard with a shotgun. The murders and robberies stopped over night.

This whole thing is so horrific. But what is also horrific is that too many people will be blaming the wrong things and again.. as usual.. the real problems will never be dealt with and thus.. more horrific things will continue to happen.

I heard that there were many heroes. One was the janitor. He was running up and down the halls warning people.

Imagine just for a moment if this man had been well armed and was able to take down this shooter.

These murderous shooters are evil…. but they never seem to be well trained. It is one thing to shoot unarmed children. It is another thing to shoot back at someone shooting at you.

You want to stop this violence? Put armed guards into the schools now! Allow teachers to carry concealed weapons! allow the principles and other office workers to carry concealed or open carry! If we did that… this would be the last school shooting we ever heard about.

Oh.. we don’t want guns in our schools? You’d rather have dead bodies?
If guns don’t stop evil then why do the cops carry them?

I have avoided the news and all talk shows today. I just can’t handle any more of these evil actions where innocent kids are needlessly murdered by some sick F*** and the Dems want to then turn it into a “get the guns” discussion.

karenhasfreedom on December 14, 2012 at 9:02 PM

It’s so much easier to blame the tool rather than who wields the too – we know that liberals are all for doing things the easy way.

The liberals will continue to whine about guns rather than look into their own sick and sorry lifestyles where they celebrate the personalities that will turn on a dime and kill people when they realize they aren’t a special snowflake, that people really don’t give a cr*p about their feelings or hear the word “no” being applied.

If the liberals were to actually show some introspection and thought they’d realize their lifestyles and thought processes are death cults and society killers.

Why do liberals insist upon excusing this monster’s behavior? That is what’s wrong with this country. We never hold anyone responsible for their poor decisions. We’ve become a paternalistic nanny state that always find an excuse for everything.

Everyone is a victim.

To make this guy out to be a victim of bad gun laws is horrible. He owns his own actions. He is at fault. Nothing else. He chose to behave in that fashion.

“Meaningful action” should start with the President admitting that speaking in terms of “revenge” and referring to fellow Americans that happen to disagree with his politics as “the enemy” was wrong. Class warfare has always worked but until lately I think most Democrats were too honorable to use the tactic extensively. Now that they have nothing else, they have tripled down on it and I honestly believe the tragedy today is a direct consequence.